#japanese

The story of Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Tres was both simple and complicated. Simple in that things never change: people consistently jealous or secretive or brave-hearted. As for the rest, it all came down to a series of misunderstandings, the type that could happen to anyone, really. You assume that the sushi bucket is full of gold coins, but instead it's got Kokingo's head in it. You think you know everything about your faithful follower, but it turns out that he's actually an orphaned fox who can change his shape at will. It was he who spoke my favorite line of the evening, five words that perfectly conveyed just how enchanting and full of surprises this Kabuki play really is: 'That drum is my father. ↗

— David Sedaris

#japanese-mythology #kabuki #plays #wtf #change

I realized that the world did not exist for my benefit. It followed that the ratio of pleasant and unpleasant things around me would not change. It wasn't up to me. It was clear that the best thing to do was to adopt a sort of muddled cheerfulness. ↗

— Banana Yoshimoto

#change

Als ich sehe, wie Harus Haar verspielt im Wind tanzt und völlig zerzaust wird, und das, obwohl das Grau da draußen doch bleischwer in der Luft lastet, erkenne ich auf einmal, wie weit, weit weg die Vergangenheit ist. Weiter als der Tod, ja weiter sogar als die unüberbrückbare Distanz, die zwischen zwei Menschen besteht. ↗

— Banana Yoshimoto

#deutsch #distance #german #japan #japanese

In seven days God had created the Earth. In a single day mankind had turned it upside down. ↗

— Kristina McMorris

#god #inspirational #japanese-fiction #philosophy-religion #war

I'll make you so in love with me, that everytime our lips touch, you'll die a little death. ↗

— Ai Yazawa

#japanese #manga #death

I think the future stopped looking American when you think back to Blade Runner and Neuromancer, when it started to look more Japanese. ↗

— Iain Banks

#back #blade #blade runner #future #i

I think that the Japanese culture is one of the very few cultures left that is its own entity. They're just so traditional and so specific in their ways. It's kind of untouched, it's not Americanized. ↗

— Toni Collette

#culture #cultures #entity #few #i

When a population saves a lot, the funds are invested outside the country as well as inside. If the Japanese invest in the United States, it pushes their exchange rate down and makes their manufacturing more competitive. ↗

— Evan Davis

#country #down #exchange #exchange rate #funds

The ancient bond between the tsarist state and Russian nationalism could be used to create powerful emotions when the enemy came from the heathen east. The Mongol invasion had left a powerful mark on the Russian psyche. It was expressed in a deep anxiety about the mixed Eurasian roots of the people and it's culture, which made it easy for an educated liberal to convince themselves that this war was nothing less than a defense of Russia's European identity against the Asian hordes. ↗

— Orlando Figes

#education

The dwarfed trees of the Chinese and Japanese have been noticed by every author who has written upon these countries, and all have attempted to give some description of the method by which the effect is produced. ↗

— Robert Fortune

#author #been #chinese #countries #description